Can't Beet This Treat!

Growing-up on the northwest side of Milwaukee my dad and I raised beets in the garden out behind the garage.  He counted on my help with their care - weeding, thinning and finally the harvest and pickling.  Roasted beets are good - pickled beets are better.  Dad never met a pickled beet he didn't like.  Same for my mother-in-law.  She's almost a hundred years old and most visits with her include a pint of home-grown pickled beets.  Come to think of it - all of the old timers in the family like pickled beets.  Me too.

 

If you really want to trip down memory lane after you've graciously dined-upon your pickled beets DO NOT discard the remaining contents of the jar.  Instead, go to your fridge where, if you're like me, you generally keep a stash of hard-cooked eggs in the shell.  Peel as many that will fit in the jar and place them in the reserved beet brine returning it to the fridge.  Let them set for a couple days.  Et voilà!  You will have perfectly purple pickled eggs.  Yummy!

If you’re looking for an extra-special treat cut some of the tender-young beet tops early in the season. Soak in cold water to remove any grit, rinse and drain. Sautéed beet tops are not only delicious - they're chock-full of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. They are also Gluten-Free. 

Anyway, in the early days of the Door County garden I suffered a stretch of years that my beets failed.  They either germinated and died or never germinated.  Sometimes the deer ate the delicious beet tops.  Sowing your crop at regular intervals results in continued production while avoiding an overwhelming harvest. If you like pickled veggies here's a step-by-step guide to pickling your own beets.  They're a terrific side any time of year – especially when entertaining during the holidays and awesome on a toasted peanut butter sandwich. Enjoy!

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Pickled Beets
A bunch of garden beets
2 large sweet onions – peeled and sliced on the larger size
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 sticks cinnamon
1 T whole allspice
1 ½ t canning salt
3 ½ cups apple cider vinegar
1 ½ cups water
 

Hose-off your beets on the grass. 

 

Trim-off the tops leaving a couple of inches of stem and the tap root. Reserve the tops from the smaller beets for sautéing greens. 

 

  

Soak the beets in a sink-full of cold water to remove the remaining grit. Transfer them to a pot of boiling water and cook about an hour - give or take - until tender.  Add your beets to the pot beginning with the largest first.  

 

 

At five minute intervals progressively add more beets from largest to smallest with the last of them added at the 30 minute mark.  This way they will all be cooked-thru at the same time. Transfer the cooked beets to a sink-full of cold water to cool.  Combine everything else except the onions in a non-reactive pot and bring the brine to a slow boil.  Simmer 15 minutes. 

 

Returning to the sink slice-off the beet tops and tap roots allowing the skin to slip-off.  Set aside your whole beets. Keeping the residue of beet tops, skins and roots in the sink makes clean-up a snap.  Slice the beets with a mandolin and pack into pint jars.  

 

 

Apportion your sliced raw onion as you fill.    Remove the cinnamon from the pot and ladle the hot brine over the contents of the jars leaving 1/2 inch of head space.  Add lids and rings and process pints 30 minutes in a boiling water bath.   This batch yielded sixteen pints - I doubled the brine recipe and still came-up short and had to mix a 1/3 size batch to fill the last four jars.  

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Pro Tip - Use non-reactive cookware. When canning - cleanliness is right up there with Godliness. A dishwasher will sterilize your jars on the ‘Sanitize’ cycle. Boil water in a Pyrex measuring cup for sterilizing your lids. Make sure your lids have 'popped' before storing the pasteurized jars in your bunker.